ECON 251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Jared Diamond, Neolithic Revolution, Side Effect
18 Feb 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Geography has everything to do with why some civilizations flourished while others did not. Where people settled gave them more or fewer advantages in the areas necessary for developing the social complexity, which in turn could lead to technological advances. Factors to consider: length of inhabitation. The longer a continent was inhabited, the more time there was for the inhabitants to develop from hunter- gatherer societies into more complex societies: possibility of food production. Different continents had different plants and animals available for domestication. Eurasia had far more plants and animals that could be domesticated, while africa"s animals did not prove suitable for domestication. Allowed humans to live in the same place year-round, allowing for specialization: possibility of spread. Crops spread best on the same latitude (east/west), therefore eurasia had the advantage. Once they spread, large societies can be developed, and therefore technological advances are more likely: technology/conquest.
